Crusaders eye perfect Super Rugby season

Jul 14, 2017 - 5:06 AM The Crusaders barely needed a pep talk ahead of their blockbuster final regular season Super Rugby game against the Hurricanes on Saturday as they eye a perfect season.

The Crusaders lead the overall standings on 63 points and can guarantee home advantage throughout the playoffs with an away win over the defending champions, but they are also unbeaten in Super Rugby this season with a 14-0 record.

Only one team has gone through the season unbeaten - the 2002 Crusaders side, who won all 11 round robin games, then their semi-final and the final to clinch a fourth title.

"It's pretty obvious, we've got a chance to do something special," coach Scott Robertson told reporters on Friday as he attempted to downplay the unbeaten record.

"We know how important it is to finish one in the conference and on the overall table with the way everyone is travelling.

"The boys are pretty clear, we don't have to get round and hold hands and chat about that. They know. They're big boys."

Despite the significance of the match, Robertson has opted to rest his All Blacks front row of props Joe Moody and Owen Franks, and hooker Code Taylor after a brutal series against the British and Irish Lions.

"It is a welfare thing. No-one can go 10 games in a row -- the guys are holding different niggles and we have three more big games after this," Robertson added.

"And we were guided a lot by the All Blacks and what they thought, and obviously the tough tests they played."

Robertson was, however, still able to call on five other international forwards to start the match, including All Blacks captain Kieran Read, and had faith that his pack would be able to attack the Hurricanes in the set piece and at the breakdown.

"We have got a strong set piece and we trust all our squad," Robertson said of a pack that still includes New Zealand prop Wyatt Crockett, locks Scott Barrett and Luke Romano and loose forwards Matt Todd and Read.

The Hurricanes currently sit fifth in the standings on 54 points and a win will mean they only need travel to Canberra to face the ACT Brumbies in the quarter-finals.

If they were to lose and the Waikato Chiefs beat the Brumbies earlier on Saturday, they will head to South Africa to face the Stormers.

Source: AAP